Purity?

I despise purists. Frankly, I find them to be annoying, rude, and for the most part out of touch with reality. What really gets me is when I encounter them in my line of work, mostly because the industries I've worked in are exactly the kind that embrace the oddball and strange. To retain 'purity' in those industries is to willingly stagnate and kill your business in a musty corner.

I first recognized this bullshit working in alcohol. I admit, I used to be a huge beer snob. But after months of drinking high-quality, high-alcohol, high-priced beer at bars, I started to question my own snobbery. After all, regardless of my feelings on macro brewing, I had once drank Bud Light, hadn't I? And while it might not be my first choice, if it is what is available, am I really going to turn my nose up? No. There is a time and place for every beer, and people who are going to get their panties in a twist about it are going to come off as pompous asses more often than not.

More recently, I've noticed this purist attitude among fellow cooks. And not towards anything understandable, like ingredients- I could forgive that. No, towards uniforms, of all things.

Really?

The standard uniform for chefs in many upscale restaurants and corporate places are whites- an outfit comprised of a chef coat, 'checks' (baggy, elastic-waisted pants), non-slip shoes, and a chef's hat of some sort (there are different styles available, of course). This uniform is built on functionality, and to minimize safety hazards in the kitchen. That's great, I support that. However, not every kitchen requires that specific uniform- does that make the place any less of a restaurant? No! Absolutely not!!! I have worked in a large variety of places, both mediocre and excellent, and never once has what the staff looked like influenced the quality of food. So long as we passed health code, there was never an issue. What mattered was our attitudes being in that kitchen in the first place, and whether we were proud of the product we were putting out. THAT made the difference between cafeteria-style slop and a beautifully plated rinsrouladen.

I recently saw a photo online of a guy butchering a pig in a hoodie, jeans, a hat, and an apron- accompanied by some of the most annoying commentary from one or two of those uniform purists, calling the butcher 'unprofessional' and generally just being asses about it. I have two problems with that whole notion- one, the commenters weren't his employers. They have no say as to what is considered 'professionalism' in that particular restaurant, and no right to judge based on their own lofty, self-righteous standards. Two, who in the fuck do they think butchers the pigs at the local farms? For anybody with that farm-to-table boner I've met, they insist on local products. Well, I have yet to meet a farmer who slaughters a pig in chef whites. If it's good enough for the supplier to wear jeans and shit, it's perfectly acceptable, in my mind, for the ones using the product to do the sane. Don't even get me started on the history of clothes and butchery, I've already been on quite the tangent this morning.

On a similar note, there was another variety of uniform purism that caught my attention- a female line cook on Reddit was looking for advice on where to get better-fitting checks. She didn't like how the current style marketed looked on her, a completely fair analysis, as they are currently designed to give anyone wearing them a serious case of potato-butt. Being that there are ways to make kitchen-safe pants without making them heinously unattractive, I had expected more empathy for the woman. Ha! Silly me, this is the Internet! Instead she was told to suck it up and be a professional, or go get a desk job. I call horse shit. The restaurant industry is already one where women on the line find themselves getting harassed more often than not- a sad fact that is slowly changing, but hasn't quite yet. So forgive us if we want to do little things here and there to make ourselves feel better about how we look- it's not vanity, it is us ensuring we don't have that stupid, annoying thought of, "ugh, I look awful" distracting us from the job we need to do.

I work in one of the best restaurants in the southeast. I wear blue jeans and eyeliner to work. Does Chef care? No. He is more concerned with me getting my job done, and to the standards that he put forth. So, to all of the purists out there, get a life. Whether it's beer, uniforms, or any other stupid inconsequential matter; you're just making yourself look backwards and overly stuffy. Life's too short to get in a tizz over crap like that.


And on that note, I'm done. Rant over.

(Pic is me, making fried chicken two years ago in 4" heels. Suck on that, haters.)